Friday, September 24, 2010

Harry Potta!

I am reading Harry Potter in German right now. It is outrageous fun--right at my proximate level of development (cue: Vygotsky followers shout hooray!).

It's also somewhat disconcerting. I mean, I am a child of the Harry Potter-midnight-releases generation. Among my greatest grade-school worries was the mystery surrounding the "J.K." in J.K. Rowling. Is the author a man or a woman?!?! Someone, PLEASE TELL ME! (Man, those were the days). I've read the first 3 books in the series a dozen times and was the same age as Harry, Ron, and Hermione as each successive book came out until 2008 or whenever that was (Hey--I'm a fan, not an obsessive fan). I was studying in Oxford in 2005 when the fifth came out and bought a coveted "U.K. edition." You don't think up beautiful book relationships like this. They're a gift.

Suffice it to say (ha!), I know these books well. They're imbued with the English spirit--as British as mashed peas. So, that long-winded, mostly irrelevant history was just to add to my ethos in saying that reading Harry Potter in German, a language that for me is so reflective of the German way of thinking, is like eating a pumpkin whoopie pie with cream cheese filling in the middle instead of cream. It's a bit different than what you're accustomed to, but not at all disappointing.

So that's how I feel, if that makes sense.

2 comments:

  1. You won the Toddler Food cookbook! Congrats! Please email me at valplowman@gmail.com with your mailing address. I think you will love it!

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  2. Hooray for Harry Potter! I remember you and mom actually talking about the "J.K." for J.K. Rowling. Ha! Oh, that was so long ago. We were on our way into Barnes & Noble. You must have been ten or eleven then, huh?

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